2024 - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill’s Christmas, 1882-1947: Halcyon and Sterner Days

25 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

At Christmas 1932, Churchill received as a present “a huge bottle of brandy, and decided to paint it, accompanied by lesser bottles," Johnnie Churchill remembered. "He sent us children scurrying around Chartwell to find them: 'Fetch me associate and fraternal bottles to form a bodyguard to this majestic container.'"

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The Language: Canceling Clichés and Issues over “Issues”

20 December 2024 Comments 3 Comments

Commentator Bill O’Reilly proposes a new Cancel Culture for a collection of jargon that Churchill would define as “grimaces.” A cliché, he says, is “a phrase or opinion that is overused and lacks original thought.” Here are his nominations for grimaces we never need to hear again. He forgot “issues” but it’s not a bad list! Celebrate O’Reilly’s modest proposal: Avoid fashionable filters and fad-words in language. “Short words are best,” Churchill said, “and the old words, when short, are best of all.”

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Virgil Exner, Part 2, Chrysler: Birth of the Tailfin

15 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

With acres of glass, low beltlines and slim roof pillars, Exner’s 1957 Flite-Sweep Chrysler products were unchallenged by any rival and prefigured the shape of American cars for the next decade.The most important thing about them was their revolutionary lowness, which was no accident. Exner had demanded that they stand five inches lower than the ‘56s. Coupled with such innovations as “Torsion-Aire” ride, TorqueFlite automatic and potent V-8 engines, they represented a pinnacle, a company reborn. They were Virgil Exner’s finest hour.

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Churchill-Syria Analogies: A Syrious Situation

10 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

Charles Krauthammer, sage as ever, cautioned against comparing modern situations like Syria (we might now add Ukraine or Gaza) to the Second World War: “There is a difference of scale…. The Second World War was an existential struggle where the future of civilization was in the balance. It could be that Syria, or these other trouble spots, will develop into a World War-like conflict. But that is fairly unlikely right now. It is not a conflict in which the existence of ways of life is at stake.”

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The Loewy Studios at Studebaker, Exner at right with Bob Bourke. Behind them are Bob Koto and Gordon Buehrig. (Photos from author’s collection)

Virgil Exner, Part 1, Studebaker: How Ex Marked His Spot

5 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

At Studebaker, Exner and the Loewy Associates had revolutionary ideas: integral fenders, vast areas of curved glass, doors cut into the roof. Raymond Loewy detested the use of chrome as embellishment. He preferred slim, tapered shapes, and practical devices like glass or clear plastic headlamp covers to improve streamlining. Loewy also preached lightness, warning of the cost of excess weight in fuel consumption and performance. Throughout the studio, on walls, floors and ceilings, he posted signs reading: WEIGHT IS THE ENEMY.

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Churchill at 150: A Certain Splendid Memory

30 November 2024 Comments 2 Comments

“I pondered what had made this dynamic but gentle character so beloved and respected. First of all that there was courage. He had no fear of anything, moral or physical. There was sincerity, truth and integrity, for he couldn't knowingly deceive a cabinet minister or a bricklayer or a secretary. There was forgiveness, warmth, affection, loyalty and, perhaps most important of all in the demanding life we all lived, there was humour, which he had in abundance.” -Grace Hamblin

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Lenin as Typhoid Culture. Or: To Russia With Love

25 November 2024 Comments 0 Comments

The German plan, Churchill wrote, “worked with amazing accuracy. No sooner did Lenin arrive than he began beckoning a finger here and a finger there to obscure persons in sheltered retreats in New York, in Glasgow, in Bern, and other countries, and he gathered together the leading spirits of a formidable sect, the most formidable sect in the world, of which he was the high priest and chief. With these spirits around him he set to work with demoniacal ability to tear to pieces every institution on which the Russian State and nation depended. Russia was laid low. Russia had to be laid low. She was laid low to the dust.”

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It’s Baaaack! The Epstein Churchill Bust Kerfuffle, Round 4

20 November 2024 Comments 0 Comments

Since 1965 has been an Epstein Churchill bust at the White House, uninterrupted now for six decades. Current media confusion surrounds the SECOND Epstein, which makes regular visits on loan from the British Embassy, where it is in the Embassy’s art collection. Epstein #1 is part of the permanent White House collection. Epstein #2 is an “optional extra” at the White House, depending on the whim of the occupant. Every President is entitled to the totems of his choice.

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Tim Benson and the Cartoonists’ Churchill

15 November 2024 Comments 1 Comment

Benson devotes himself mainly to the Second World War. The uplifting spirit of British cartoonists in the black days of 1940-41 is at once evident. A glow of resolve swept Britain; there were no carping media midgets such as we hear from today. That was a time, as Churchill put it, “when it was equally good to live or die.” The pace picks up as Hitler invades Russia. The Daily Sketch pictures Roosevelt leading a sailing race in a boat marked “Lend-Lease.” Melbourne’s Herald adds Aussie humor: Tojo being fed a cigar (lit end first), and wrestler Churchill putting a toe-hold on a screaming Mussolini. This is a first-class work of scholarship in addition to high entertainment.

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Stop the Churchill Comparisons! (Part #1,234)

10 November 2024 Comments 0 Comments

Really, these Churchill comparisons need to stop. We cannot postulate what Churchill would do about any issue or problem today. It doesn't seem far-fetched to suggest that in today's Middle East. his focus would be on the main danger. Figure out what that is, and you too can may find comparisons Winston Churchill. But, in a larger sense, there is nobody so far in the 21st century who is comparable to WSC. Nobody.

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